‘Your mum is safe in heaven now’

“Your mum is safe in heaven and now nothing can ever hurt her again.”

People wept openly yesterday as a priest offered these moving words of comfort to the three young children who mother was found murdered after a house fire in Cork at the weekend.

Olivia Dunlea-O’Brien, 36, who was originally from Victoria Ave, Ballinlough, in Cork City, was found dead after fire fighters tackled a blaze in her home in the Pembroke Crescent estate in Passage West in the early hours of Sunday.

She had been stabbed before the house was set alight.

Speaking directly to her children, Aaron, 12, Megan, 10, and Darragh, nine, who were being comforted by their father, Adrian, throughout her funeral yesterday, Passage West and Monkstown parish priest Fr Sean O’Sullivan said he found comfort in the phrase “the souls of our loved ones are in the hands of God, nothing can ever touch them”.

“When I was your age, and when something frightened me, or when I fell and hurt myself, or when anything was wrong, the first thing I did was to run to my father or mother,” he said.

“And as soon as they took us their arms, no matter what had happened beforehand, we suddenly felt safe, because we knew they would never let anything happen to us, and we felt secure.

“Today, I truly believe that Olivia, your mum, feels like that now, that she is safe, she is well. She is in the arms of God and nothing can ever hurt her again.”

Hundreds of mourners packed in to the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Ballinlough, close to where she grew up for the ceremony.

A framed portrait of Olivia was placed on top of her coffin. A floral tribute of white flowers spelling the word “Mum” was placed beneath.

Her husband, their children, and her parents, Ann and Jimmy, stood nearby, supported by a wide circle of close family and friends.

Her aunt Sally addressed mourners and recalled her niece’s love of fun.

“She enjoyed everything with being young and was full of life,” she said.

“When she had kids of her own she took that fun with her.

“Megan told me that her favourite thing to do with her mum was to invade Penneys and go home and try everything on.”

She said Olivia’s favourite Disney character was Tinkerbell, that pink and purple were her favourite colours, and that her favourite lipstick was pink.

“They are the things you didn’t hear, but they are the things that we love,” said Sally.

“She was such a sweet and lovely girl — full of love, full of mischief. When you remember her, remember that.”

Gifts brought to the altar included a bright pink hair straighteners, a child’s toy, a cup dedicated to the world’s greatest aunt, and Olivia’s favourite Kimberley biscuits.

Fr Sean said the nature of her death had left people feeling numb and shaken.

“It is wrong that Aaron, Megan, and Darragh should be cruelly robbed of the years of loving and caring that Olivia had so wished to give them,” he said.

“It is wrong that Jimmy, Ann, and their family will never be fully complete again.

“And, even in our world that is sadly too accustomed to tragic violence, her death — the taking of the life of a young mother with a young family — has touched something deep inside so many people.”

But as her family searches for comfort, for hope, and for the strength to face the days ahead, he said they will be able to draw on the fullness of her life, and all that there is to admire and celebrate about her life.

“Olivia had a huge capacity for life, for friendship, for fun, and for goodness,” he said.

“And such a combination of gifts is a rare and wonderful thing. Perhaps it explains why so many people, young and old, felt at ease in her company.”

He spoke of her boundless energy, her remarkable generosity of spirit, and of her willingness to give time and that energy to her neighbours and the wider community, particularly the Passage West youth club where she was a respected volunteer and leader.

Olivia had also agreed to help with the preparation of Aaron and his classmates at Star of the Sea in Passage West for their Confirmation in two weeks, mourners were told.

“She had a great phrase; when people would ask her how she was getting on, she would smile and say: I’m running wrong,” Fr Sean said.

“If Olivia is an example of what it means to be running wrong, maybe more of us should start running wrong.

“That generosity makes her death all the more tragic.”

Her remains were buried afterwards in St Catherine’s Cemetery in Kilcully.

Darren Murphy, 36, with an address at Dan Desmond Villas in Passage West, Co Cork, who was arrested late on Sunday , was charged on Tuesday morning with Olivia’s murder.

He was remanded in custody and is due to appear again before Cork District Court via video link this morning.